JITB Create a Sensation with Viral for Sony
“Why this kolaveri di?” has become the most shared video in India and is on its way to becoming a viral phenomenon. Jack in the Box Worldwide (JITB), the digital wing of Mumbai-based production company, Bang Bang Films were charged with promoting the single for the upcoming Tamil film “3”, released on Sony Music.
In order to get the video, which features behind the scenes footage of the singer/songwriter (and lead in the film), Dhanush recording the single, out to the masses, JITB opted to release the film on November 16th to influencers and tastemakers in the fields of art and culture. They then reached out to the student community who would relate to the song’s lyrics about a young man you has been rejected in love, in quirky “Tanglish” (Tamil-English). JITB wanted to create buzz and to spread the meaning of the Tamil lyric “kolaveri di” (translated as murderous rage, girl).
Prashanth Challapalli, Jack-in-Chief, Jack in the Box Worldwide, explains the process, “We had been working with Sony Music for a while when they sent this video to us. We fell in love with it and felt that everyone else would too. One of our content managers is from the south, and he understood the nuances of the song, so we decided to seed it on YouTube, with one-liners accompanying the hashtag #whythiskolaveridi on Twitter. We felt that just posting the video link wouldn't be enough, so we posted quirky lines like "Iceland still hasn't seen this #whythiskolaveridi”, for example. That created a lot of curiosity and people started clicking the link. Once they watched the video, they were hooked and started tweeting and sharing this song on Facebook with their own quirky lines. In 6 short hours, the hashtag started trending on twitter and the video suddenly crossed 100,000 hits on YouTube. That's when we knew this was going to go viral but we never imagined it would be close to 2 million views and trend continuously for 5 days (at press time)”.
Samit Malkani, Creative Head at JITB, knew they had fulfilled the brief, “There’s something indefinable about ideas that go viral – and we knew that Kolaveri had that X factor. The promotion was a mix of smart seeding and sheer passion, and it showed in the results. The numbers are awesome – but to me the biggest indication that Kolaveri would go viral quick was when non-South Indians like me started singing it over and over and over again.” The promo has even spawned several fan videos in response.
Roopak Saluja, Co-Founder & Managing Director, Bang Bang Films & Jack in the Box Worldwide, says, "You don't ever create a viral. Content is either worthy of going viral or it isn't and that's for other people to decide. What you do create are the conditions for propagation. And I'm proud to note that, not for the first time, we've demonstrated that at Jack in the Box, we hold the key ingredients necessary to create those conditions- knowledge, network and lots of passion."
As of November 24th, the video had garnered 1,317,575 Facebook shares and been viewed 3,570,618 times on YouTube with 48,570 likes. On Twitter, the past 1,000 tweets have generated 278,118 impressions, reaching an audience of 221,311 followers in the past 24 hours. Add your view to the growing millions at http://youtu.be/YR12Z8f1Dh8.
About Jack in the Box Worldwide:
Jack in the Box Worldwide is the content-for-brands arm of Bang Bang Films, India’s international production company. It combines content strategy, film and video production and digital media to create customized content for brands across multiple platforms and geographies. Clients on their roster include Puma, Mattel, Conde Nast, L’Oreal, Sony Music, Louis Philippe and Mahindra Retail. JITB’s web address is www.jackintheboxworldwide.com
